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Love says he's happy with T-Wolves direction

Published on NewsOK
Modified: December 12, 2012 at 2:43 pm •
Published: December 12, 2012

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Love and Rubio are close friends, and when asked about it on Wednesday, he continued to heap praise on the point guard who is due to come back from a torn ACL in his left knee any day now.

"I never have a problem with anybody getting paid," Love said. "If there's one other guy to pay on this team it's Ricky Rubio. I've kind of been enamored with him since he got here. He's a pass-first point guard, a guy I haven't really played with before.

"I'm not going to pick favorites but he's one of my favorite teammates and one of the best guys to be around. And I've mentioned since Day 1 that it's refreshing to be around him because he loves the game so much."

As for his issues with Kahn's roster upheaval the first three years on the job, Love said he was very pleased with the additions that have been made this year. Andrei Kirilenko, Dante Cunningham and Alexey Shved have made the Wolves deeper than they have been in years and also came partly at the behest of Love, who campaigned for more veterans to be added at the end of last season.

Love has always used perceived slights and doubts as fuel. He is constantly working on his game and his body to prove to anyone who thought otherwise that he can be an elite player in the NBA. He proved as much last year by averaging 26 points and 13.3 rebounds per game, then becoming one of the most important players on Team USA's run to the gold medal in the London Olympics.

So in many ways, Love will never forget the contract issue. That's what stars do. They search for motivation wherever they can find it.

"In some people's mental makeup it's just not in them," he said of forgetting. "Just moving forward is the biggest thing. That's the same thing I talked about with coach and with David yesterday. I just need to move forward and hopefully this thing won't keep coming up. I'm done talking about it, really from here on out after today. I'm hoping we can just move on and winning will take care of everything."